The past, present and future of books, libraries and book collecting: a personal odyssey
Thursday 26 March 2015

We invite you to an illustrated lecture by Colin Steele, Emeritus Fellow, Australian National University with an introduction by John Shipp, University Librarian, University of Sydney, 1997-2011.

Colin will reflect on “The past, present and future of books, libraries and book collecting” from over 50 years of experience, both from an institutional and personal perspective, and speculate on twenty-first century trends.

Major collections that Colin has assembled have been donated to several libraries. His Latin American collection is held by La Trobe University Library, his science fiction and fantasy collections by Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Sydney Library and his signed Australian literature collection is in the Australian National University Library. A small but significant collection of signed Australian political material is held in the Library of Old Parliament House, Canberra. His current personal collections include signed material covering politics, sport, film and television, and biography.

From his time in the Bodleian Library, Oxford and the ANU Library, Colin will recall some of the fascinating collectors and booksellers he has met and, from his current research on scholarly communication and publishing, will reflect on the changing nature of book collecting and libraries in a digital era.

Ex Libris Fisherarium is an ongoing series of art projects curated by Associate Professor Michael Goldberg. The projects comprising work by staff, alumni and associates of Sydney College of the Arts are themed around the idea of ‘the book’ in all its historical and contemporary manifestations.

Project: Data Retention by Gianni Wise

Artist’s Statement
With the proliferation of data networks, the human mind always find ways to ‘wire-up’ new connections between itself, objects, ideas, events and the world. I use wires and books as a form of ready-made art that work as props for memory. Objects external to the mind can trigger memory and make connections. I am interested in this interplay between mind and external world. When Umberto Ecco claimed in the Name of The Rose (1988): “Wanting connections, we found connections always, everywhere, and between everything” he refers to a world ‘exploding’ in a whirling network of interrelationships where everything (appears to) point to everything else, everything explains everything else.

Curator’s Statement
Gianni Wise’s installation has its menacing aspects. The title, ‘Data Retention’, might well refer to current government policies regarding the retention of metadata – the harvesting from telecommunications networks of personal information by law enforcement agencies – ostensibly to protect the public from acts of terrorism. Indeed, the installation itself displays a number of sinister ‘packages’. Perhaps they hold data. But they also disturbingly resemble IEDs (or ‘improvised explosive devices’). The ‘connections’ Wise refers to carry the potential to penetrate deep into our personal lives, challenging privacy and potentially violating fundamental rights. In this sense, the installation reflects on the threat of data retention exposing our personal lives ‘like an open book’. Wise’s use of ambiguously wired devices may equally suggest the mind’s desire to invent ‘paranoid’ connections where there are none.

Dates: 23 February to 26 March 2015
Where: Levels 2, 3 and 4 exhibition cabinets, Fisher Library NorthCost: FREE and open daily to the publicTimes: Opening times vary, please check the website

For details of past and current projects, connect with Ex Libris Fisherarium on Facebook.

We’re going back to the future for OWeek!And we’re excited to welcome new and returning students with some fun activities and competitions. So come along and join us to Learn, Play and Win!

What’s happening

Love your Library Instagram competition: Mon 23 Feb – Sun 8 Mar
Show us the Library through your eyes to be in the running to win a prize!
Find out how to enter here.

Discover your Library sessions
Find out how we can help you save time and get the best results in your studies by using Library resources for your research:Fisher Library, Seminar Room, Level 2
Wed 25 Feb: 12-1pm and 1-2pm

The University supports the principles of open access (OA), and is committed to enabling the broadest possible access to its scholarly outputs, including journal articles, monographs, datasets and higher degree by research theses.

As part of the implementation of the new policy, the University has released all Sydney Research Online research publications collection metadata (2001–15), and will enable access to the publishers’ versions of items within this collection wherever publishers’ open access archiving polices allow.

In addition, researchers are encouraged to supplement the Sydney Research Online collections by self-archiving scholarly works in the Sydney eScholarship Repository. Researchers are encouraged to enable access to completed research data sets (unless this is prevented by privacy or other requirements). All Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Students are encouraged to make their theses openly accessible wherever possible – after consulting with their research supervisors, of course!

Jacqui Grainger, Manager of Rare Books & Special Collections at the University of Sydney, speaks to Librarian Insider to share a fascinating insight into how the University of Sydney Library came to hold an annotated copy of the first edition of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.Read more >

A substantial remodelling to the Badham Library is due to commence. The Badham collection is currently being moved to the SciTech library and the Badham Library will close on Friday 21 November.

The Quarter will open mid-Semester 1, 2015 after being transformed into a technology enabled learning space for Postgraduate coursework students. Further details will be issued as we progress towards the completion of The Quarter.

Earlier this year the University Library conducted a survey of academics and researchers to gather information about emerging trends in academic and researcher attitudes and practice. The results are now available and will guide the University and the Library in developing strategies to support research and teaching in an environment increasingly shaped by digital technologies.